I hope you already had the chance to try some of the great features in the newly released Veeam Availability Suite v9. Maintaining Availability for your virtualized workloads is now much easier using functionality and features such as Veeam Explorer for Oracle, Veeam Cloud Connect with Replication and Scale-out Backup Repository.

But you haven't seen them all! There are more than 250 new features and enhancements in v9 including those that you may have not heard about, but that would really make your life easier. Below are some of my personal favorites.

Remote PowerShell

You can now use PowerShell to execute cmdlets and scripts to connect to a local or remote Veeam backup server and even to restore SQL databases without PowerShell Remoting. Veeam made this happen with the new standalone Remote PowerShell console. It is designed as a snap-in to Microsoft Windows PowerShell 2.0 and enables you to do almost all the operations you can do in the Veeam Backup & Replication GUI. More than that, you can start a remote session to a remote server or even several servers at the same time.

Per-VM Backup Files

New Per-VM backup file chains enable 10x faster backup performance with parallel VM processing. The idea behind this feature is to use a separate write stream for every virtual machine in the backup job, and store the data into a separate backup file instead of storing the VM data in the same backup file in one write stream. As a result, backups are individual and smaller, which brings better file portability. Per-VM backup file chains allow you to get the most out of your storage investments due to using backup repository resources to their fullest.

VMware vSphere VM tags backup and restore

Wait... wasn’t VMware vSphere tags support introduced in Veeam Availability Suite v8? Yes, and many of you are already enjoying the ability to group VMs based on specific tags and populate backup jobs using tags. In Veeam Availability Suite v9, we have extended this functionality to backup and restore vSphere tags. Essentially, VM tags are metadata, and now you can back it up and restore along with your VMs, so you’ll never lose it.

1-Click File-Level Recovery without indexing

1-Click File-Level Recovery is one of the numerous enterprise-level improvements in v9, which is especially useful for service providers. It eliminates the need to index the guest file system allowing for files search and recovery via the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager web UI. There’s no need in guest credentials to do the indexing, so service providers can easily delegate file-level restores to their tenants.

Backup copy parallel processing

Veeam Availability Suite v9 includes improved backup copy job performance. Multiple VMs are now processed in parallel when doing a backup copy, similar to primary backup jobs. This enhancement removes the “dead time” between each VM and makes moving backups off-site faster and smoother. Maintaining the 3-2-1 rule is even easier now, isn’t it?

Conclusion

Veeam Availability Suite v9 brings a lot to the table in terms of both enterprise enhancements and efficient daily administration of your backup infrastructure. In the recent VeeamLive webinar, Doug Hazelman, Chief Evangelist at Veeam, and Jason Leiva, Veeam’s Solutions Architect, revealed the top ten cool and handy features you may not know about in Veeam Availability Suite v9. Don’t miss the chance to further explore the full potential of v9!

Learn more in Veeam Help Center:

5 Favorite Not-So-Obvious Features in Veeam Availability Suite v9, 5.0 out of 5 based on 2 ratings

Cristian-Antonio Puricica

Cristian-Antonio is a Veeam Specialist certified in Oracle database design and programming with SQL. His background in IT Technology and Web Development, along with his passion for new technologies, have driven his interest in virtualization and cloud computing. Cristian-Antonio is enthusiastic on sharing his experience... More